Major League Baseball would love to see Aaron Judge vs Shohei Ohtani in the World Series and it doesn’t care who knows it.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees as its final four, MLB might not outright admit there’s one matchup it’s rooting for, but there’s one matchup it should be rooting for. That matchup is Dodgers-Yankees. And in one of its postseason commercials, MLB almost, sorta, kinda admitted it.
It’s a great commercial, and it does something MLB is always accused of not doing by promoting the league’s biggest stars. But if you’re a Guardians or Mets fan sitting down to watch the ALCS or NLCS, seeing Major League Baseball flaunt Judge and Ohtani doesn’t exactly make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. And this ad was running throughout the divisional round! Judge and Ohtani were still two rounds away from the prospect of meeting in the World Series.
What happens if the Yankees and Dodgers get knocked out of the playoffs? Does MLB scrap its best commercial? Or maybe worse, what happens if the Yankees and Dodgers both make it to the World Series? This commercial will undoubtedly encourage all the conspiracy theorists to claim the playoffs were scripted for Judge and Ohtani to meet in the World Series.
Mets-Yankees would be great for New York and New Jersey, but the 48 other states couldn’t care less. The Guardians are a nice story, but they’re not the Yankees. In a sport that is very regional, Yankees-Dodgers give Major League Baseball the best chance of attracting a national audience.
We get it, it’s Judge and Ohtani, far and away the league’s two most popular and marketable players. Much to Stephen A. Smith’s surprise, Ohtani is the face of the league. This is the matchup Major League Baseball has been desperate to see and it’s the one it should quietly be rooting for. But maybe save the Judge and Ohtani commercial for when Judge and Ohtani are actually playing against each other.
[MLB]